Monday, April 21, 2008

A few thoughts on Patriots Day:

- Has anyone noticed that the Sox have quietly gone 11-3 since the sweep in Toronto? After coming home and getting their rings, they have won 2 of 3 from Detroit and the Yankees at Fenway, swept 2 from Cleveland and split 2 with New York on the road, and just finished sweeping 4 from the pitching-free Texas Rangers. I know it's only April and people are focused on the Celtics and Bruins playoff runs, but this could be a very fun summer if they can stay healthy.

- The Blue Jays and Frank Thomas parted ways after the Jays benched the Big Hurt in favor of Matt Stairs. Thomas whined about being benched (despite his .167 batting average) and didn't shake hands with his teammates after the Jay's win against the Tigers on Saturday. I know Thomas is a great hitter and a probable Hall of Famer, but why would you want a guy like that on your team?

- I can't believe Matt Stairs is still around. He has somehow managed to put together a 16 year major league career with pretty limited talent. Good for him.

- The Giants are pretty much keeping up their side of the bargain to meet my prediction of 200 Bay Area losses in 2008 (they are on a pace to lose 99 right now), but the A's are surprisingly 12-8 at this point. I don't expect them to keep this up, but even getting close to .500 would be a great accomplishment for this team.

- I just heard on the radio that the Yankees are selling 300 seats at the new Yankee Stadium in groups of four for $2,500 each! That means your bill for season tickets for the year would be $810,000. Assuming they can find at least 75 really rich people to buy these tickets (shouldn't be too hard in New York), that means they Yanks will be grossing nearly $61 million in revenue on just 300 seats. For comparison sake, this is more than the total payroll of seven teams (Florida, Tampa Bay, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Washington, Minnesota and Kansas City). It'll be interesting to see how big the Yankees revenue sharing check is once they move into the new place.